Challenge Qualcomm SA8295P, AMD helps GAC build ADiGO SPACE

On December 22, 2022, the GAC ADiGO SPACE smart cockpit upgrade conference was held online.

The ADiGO SPACE smart cockpit was first used in the GAC Movie Cooler. The low-end configuration uses Qualcomm SA8155P and a 14.6-inch large screen.

The high-end challenges Qualcomm’s current top-of-the-line fourth-generation cockpit SoC, SA8295P.

This may be the first Chinese car cockpit customer that AMD has won. Geely, Volvo, and Polestar will also join in the future. The computing power of 210K has surpassed Qualcomm’s flagship SA8295P.

AMD has won Tesla, and Tesla will completely replace it with AMD. However, the Model 3 has not yet started, and the Model Y in the United States has already been replaced with AMD. According to the disassembly, the CPU model used by Tesla is YE180FC3T4MFG. According to the hardware detection information, this CPU is based on the Zen generation, which is the 14nm process released by AMD in 2018 to create the V1000 series embedded SoC. It has 4 cores and 8 threads, and a TDP power of 45 watts.

What is the difference between Tesla and GAC?

Image source: AMD

The AMD V1000 series introduction table is as shown above. Tesla may use V1807B or V1780B, and GAC may use V1404I.

Image source: Intel

The above table is the parameters of Intel's A3900 series that were replaced by AMD. The A3900 series is aimed at vehicle cockpits. Except for the A3920, which does not meet the vehicle regulations, the rest have met the vehicle regulations. The flagship A3960 of the A3900 series, which is the chip fully used by BMW in the previous generation, has a TDP of 12.5 watts. The V140I basically meets the vehicle regulations. The most basic vehicle specification is AEC-Q100. The most important aspect of the AEC-Q100 standard is the operating temperature range -40°C to 85°C. V140I fully meets this standard, the operating range is -40℃ to 105℃, it is AMD

The V1000 series is closest to car specifications. The TDP power is only 15 watts, which is only 2.5 watts higher than the A3960. The previous generation of Tesla used the A3950.

Tesla has never cared about car specifications and prefers to pursue performance, so Tesla uses the high-power V1780B, with a basic frequency of 3.35GHz. The basic frequency of the A3950 is only 800MHz, and the V140I is 2.0GHz.

But Tesla quickly overturned.

In May 2022, Tesla recalled 130,000 vehicles equipped with AMD chips. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), this was due to the need to prevent excessive temperatures during fast charging or preparation for fast charging. , the vehicle's power used for cooling is diverted more to the battery, causing the Ryzen chip to not be fully cooled, causing the processor to slow down or restart. The end result is that the center touchscreen display lags or goes blank, and access to the rearview camera or certain controls is delayed, increasing the risk of a possible collision, but key functions like steering, acceleration, braking and signal lights are will not be affected. This may be because in these Tesla models, the infotainment system and battery share a cooling unit. The infotainment system equipped with AMD Ryzen chips has a higher TDP than the Atom processor used in the past, and the higher power consumption leads to heat dissipation. Demand has also become higher. Tesla said it will solve the problem through OTA software updates, which actually means lowering the CPU frequency. In fact, not only the heat dissipation problem, but also the battery life has become shorter. After Tesla's Model 3 was replaced with an AMD solution, the battery life decreased, with an average decrease of 2.4%.

After using AMD's cockpit, Tesla adjusted the cruising range, shrinking the most by 7.1%. The V140I will not have this problem.

AMD V1000 series internal frame diagram

Image source: AMD

The V1000 series is very suitable for cockpits, especially multi-screen cockpits, which include four native 4K video outputs. Playing 3A games is even more special.

In addition to its powerful performance, the V1000 series has another advantage, that is, there is no entry fee. There are many suppliers of core boards (SoM) for the V1000 series. Even if you only buy one, you can easily buy it online.

Typical V1000 series SoM framework diagram

Image source: AMD

The four video outputs of V1000 are all DP. The general interface for high-resolution new displays such as OLED screens or large-size displays over 17 inches is eDP, which can be connected directly. For the current mainstream LVDS, you can use NXP PTN3460 conversion.

The built-in GPU of the V1000 series is powerful enough, with a computing power of approximately 3.7TFLOPS, which is higher than the 3.4TFLOPS of the SA8155P.

Both Tesla and GAC chose the W6600 as their GPU, which is the NAVI23 core. The W6600 is equivalent to Nvidia's GTX2070, using TSMC's 7-nanometer process, 1.1 billion transistors, and a bare die area of ​​237 square millimeters. It uses 28 computing units, 1792 core design, and 28 ray tracing cores. 32MB of unlimited Infinity cache, equipped with 8GB of GDDR6 video memory.

W6600 is a professional-grade workstation graphics card. The public version is priced at US$649 for the first time abroad. It is currently about US$600. It is about RMB 4,000 in China and has a power of 130 watts. It is speculated that the cost of its GPU chip is about 100-150 US dollars.

The single-precision computing power of W6600 is as high as 10.4TFLOPS, equivalent to 8-bit integers commonly used in AI intelligence, and the computing power is 41.6TOPS. SA8295P is 30TOPS. Of course, the price of W6600+V1000 is much higher than that of SA8295P.

ADiGO PARK can read thousands of in-vehicle data in real time through gigabit-level data transmission rates and millisecond-level ultra-low latency, combine real driving with the virtual environment, and expand an infinite universe in a limited cockpit space. Use full-sensory immersion experience to subvert human-vehicle interaction. The ADiGO PARK metaverse jointly developed by GAC Group, Chenjing Technology, and iQiyi Qiyu VR creates a car-side entrance to the metaverse world. ADiGO PARK is based on the super-display computing power platform and XR head-mounted display peripherals, linking intelligence Automotive global core system.

The most important thing is probably games. At CES 2023, NVIDIA announced that GeForce NOW cloud games will be launched on the automotive platform, and Hyundai, Polestar and BYD will be the first brands to support it. Cloud games include "A Plague Tale: Requiem," "The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt" and "Cyberpunk 2077" from game stores including Steam, Electronic Arts Apps, Ubisoft, Epic Games Store and GOG .com. ” Users will also find popular free-to-play games such as Fortnite, Lost Ark, and Destiny 2.

The service will enable car owners to play high-quality games on their infotainment system while the vehicle is parked. This will give drivers something to do while they're waiting for their car to charge or just waiting for their kids to get off school. NVIDIA points out that if the vehicle is equipped with a rear-seat entertainment system, back-seat passengers can also enjoy the fun, not just front-seat passengers.

The ones that can challenge Qualcomm in the future are probably Nvidia and AMD.